


Hello Darlin'

by MagicInHerMadness



Category: Pitch (TV 2016)
Genre: AU, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-26
Updated: 2016-11-26
Packaged: 2018-09-02 06:56:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8655112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagicInHerMadness/pseuds/MagicInHerMadness
Summary: How strong is a band of gold? Is it strong enough to holdwhen a love has gone coldand a woman wants a lovesweet and warm?AU. Mike left home in search of greener pastures. When he comes back, everything's the same except that his first love is married to someone else. But a marriage of convenience has nothing on true love.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't want to do this. I really didn't. But I've been watching Hallmark movies all day and I needed to hurt myself with this. And since suffering is a group activity, I decided to hurt y'all too.

Marion, South Carolina. August 1937.

Mike tried to kick some of the dirt off his boots before he walked into the general store. He removed his hat at the sight of a woman behind the counter. She was reaching for a jar on top of a shelf that was just out of her long-armed reach. Mike walked over and retrieved it for her, giving her a smile as he handed it to her. She stared at him with wide smiling eyes the color of molasses and a dazzling smile flanked by dimples. "Thank you."

The realization hit him like lightning. How he didn't immediately recognize the only face that had ever kept him up at night was a mystery he didn't have time to ponder. Not when she was still looking at him with those eyes. "Ginny? Ginny Baker?"

She stared for a long moment and Mike momentarily wished for death. If she wasn't Ginny Baker, if this was the cruelest case of mistaken identity he'd ever had, only death would soothe the ache in his chest. But realization gleamed in her eyes as they widened.

"Mike?"He nodded, a smile spreading across his face and she mirrored his grin, pulling him into a hug. "I can't believe it's you!"

"It is," he replied, relishing the feeling of him in her arms after so many—too many—years. He pulled her onto her toes, buried his face in her neck. She still smelled the same, like lemons and strawberries, after all these years. When he finished breathing her in, he held her face in his hands, smiled. "Hello darlin'."

Ginny smiled. "It's been so long since somebody called me that."

Mike caressed her cheeks with his thumbs. "You are just as lovely as you were the day I left."

Ginny blushed. The look of adoration was the same as it had been the summer they'd turned 16 and skipped town for greener pastures. "What are you doing back? I thought you were going back east to work in a shipyard."

Mike shrugged. "Country's in my blood. Plus my granddaddy left me his farm, so here I am."

"Here you are." She finally let go and he took the opportunity to look her over. She wasn't any different from the wide-eyed girl he'd left behind five years before. She even wore her hair in the same braids that she'd had since they were in diapers. He couldn't believe time had done nothing to the only girl he'd ever loved. He pulled her close again, leaned in to press his lips to hers but she stopped him, splayed her thin hands on his chest. It was then that he noticed the ring, the thin band of gold on her left ring finger. "Mike..."

He held onto her left hand, frowned at the ring. "You're married? To who?"

"Trevor Davis," she answered. "It wasn't my idea. He asked Pop, and Pop thought it was a good idea so here I am."

Mike released her hand and cupped her face, leaned in again. Again, Ginny stopped him. Mike frowned at her. "What? It's not like you love him... Do you?"

Ginny shook her head and held ip her hands to stop him before he advanced a third time. "I don't love him. But he loves me."

"He isn't the only one," Mike replied, his hands slipping down to her neck. He caressed the curves of her jaws with his thumbs, pressed his forehead to hers. Ginny stood on her toes, nuzzled his nose with her own. "I've missed you so much, Gin. Can't believe I've gone five years without holding you, without seeing your face. Don't make me do it again."

"If I had thought you were coming back, I wouldn't have..." Her voice is tight with tears and she blinks hard, wills them not to fall.

He kissed away the crease between her eyebrows. "It was my fault. I never even wrote you. But I never stopped thinking about you. I'd swear it on a stack of Bibles."

A car door shut and Ginny jumped, seeming to remember where they were. She frowned as she stepped back. "That's Trevor."

He glanced back at the door, watched the tall man walk around to the bed of the truck, then looked back at Ginny. "I'll be back tomorrow, okay?"

She nodded, looked down at her feet. Mike lifted her face and pressed a kiss to her lips then walked away, headed for the door. Trevor looked up at him from the bags of feed he was unloading and nodded. Mike looked him over then nodded as he climbed into his own truck. Ginny watched the rusty Chevy drive away, not realizing Trevor was watching her until he spoke. "What's for dinner?"

"Stew," she answered then disappeared into the back of the store. He could hear her climbing the stairs to their living quarters above it.

X

Just as he'd promised, Mike was back the next day, a bundle of white daisies in his hand. He smiled as he held them out. "From my own field."

Ginny smiled, her cheeks flushed, as she took them. "You still remember my favorite flower after all these years."

"I remember everything about you."

He said it with such confidence that Ginny's smile twitched. "Oh yeah?"

He nodded. "Your favorite color is blue. You love sweets, especially sweet potato pie. You're ticklish behind your knees. Christmas is your favorite holiday. You've got a scar on your right knee from where I pushed you out of a tree. And you always wanted a big white house with blue shutters and a wraparound porch and lots of rooms for bundles of babies."

Ginny's hand slid across the counter. She threaded her fingers through his, smiled at their joined hands. "And you've got a scar on your chin from where I returned the favor. Course that wild beard of yours is hiding it now."

Mike rubbed his dark beard, smiled. "Some people think it's nice."

Ginny smiled back, her nose scrunched. "I find that hard to believe."

He laughed, squeezed her hand. "Wanna get something to eat? That place down the street has some good food."

Ginny frowned and he remembered why they couldn't, quickly suggested. "I could get 'em to box it up and bring it back here. What do you want?"

"Since you know me so well, surprise me."

Mike smiled. "I can do that."

Ginny followed him onto the porch and sat in a rocking chair, waving at his back window as he drove down the road. She moved the chair closer to the sun drenching the front of the porch, opened her Coke with the heel of her boot, a pair of red boots with a rose pattern stitched in pink thread. She remembered Mike's last summer, how he'd worked fixing cars in addition to helping on his grandfather's farm to buy them for her because she pointed them out during a trip to town.

Mike returned a short while later and Ginny smiled at him swinging a picnic basket. He set it on the small table between Ginny's chair and the one opposite it. "So I told Mr. Al—can you believe he remembered me after all this time?—that I was trying to do something special and he helped me out, even gave me a big slice of pie."

"It better be sweet potato," Ginny replied with a smile as she moved aside the checkers board on the table so Mike could open the basket.

"We got pulled pork sandwiches, potato wedges, and," he grinned at her, "sweet potato pie."

X

"So where does he go all day when he leaves you here?" Mike asked, glancing up from his sandwich.

Ginny frowned. "He's trying to open a new store in the next town over. We can't afford it yet, but he's got it in his head that that's what we're gonna do. And you never could tell Trevor what to do."

"So it doesn't matter what you want?"

Her frown deepened as she chewed her sandwich. "It never has. I told him flat out that I didn't wanna marry him, so he went over my head and asked Pop. And Pop didn't see any reason why not."

"Why'd you stay?"

Ginny shrugged. "Nowhere to go now that Pop's gone. Will's all the way in California working on the railroads. So I made the best of it. It's not so bad. First he was gone all day chasing down seed money for this place and now he's gone doing it all over again."

"Aren't you lonely?"

She shrugged again. "I've been lonely since you left. Being married didn't make it any different."

He moved his chair to sit beside hers and squeezed her knee. "I've been lonely too. Didn't realize how much time I spent with you until I couldn't."

"Never knew I could miss somebody so much. The world is just too damn quiet without you around." She smiled at him shyly.

Mike caressed her face. "You know what I can't understand? How he can be away from you when he ain't got no reason to. If I was in his shoes, I wouldn't miss a minute of you. Hell, I couldn't sleep last night cause I wanted to hold you so bad."

Ginny looked at her knees. She'd barely gotten a wink herself thinking about him, even letting Trevor hold her (something she rarely did) to see if it soothed the ache. "He loves me, thought I'd fall in love with him too eventually. But I haven't and he doesn't know what to do anymore. And I don't either. You can't get blood from a turnip."

Mike shrugged. "It's his fault. Marrying somebody that wasn't his to begin with. And he's a bigger fool than I thought for leaving you alone. If you gave me the chance to make you fall in love with me, I wouldn't sleep a wink until you fell for me."

It was Ginny's turn to shrug. "Suppose he did once upon a time. But it was no use. At first I was just heartbroken. Then I was surer than sure you'd be back. Then when you didn't, I just shut down. It's why he got me working in here, just to get me out of bed."

Mike gave a bittersweet smile. "Guess I've got that to thank him for, even if he didn't mean to bring us back togehter."

Ginny smiled, squeezed his hand. "We're some kind of lucky, I guess."

X

It became something like a ritual. Every day Mike came to the store for something or other. If there were people around, he'd buy a Coke, sit on the porch until they left then he and Ginny would have lunch. If it was a slow day, he'd talk her into closing up or begging her friend Evelyn into watching the store so they could sneak away to his farm for a little while. The hotter the summer got, the more willing she was to come down with him so she could laze around on his porch swing, the smell of wildflowers wafting across the porch. If Trevor noticed the difference, he didn't say anything, and if she was being honest, Ginny wouldn't have known if he was acting strange either. Her every thought was preoccupied with Mike, getting back what she'd lost.

Ginny followed him to the stables and Mike put a saddle on his gentlest horse, a black mare named Sugar. He'd always found her fear of horses funny, especially with her growing up on a farm. "If you don't scare her, she won't scare you. It's simple, Gin."

Ginny nodded though she didn't quite believe him. She stepped close to the horse and gently rubbed her nose, jumping when the horse let out a satisfied huff. Mike laughed and put her hand back. "That's a good noise."

"It didn't sound like it." With Mike's help, she climbed onto the horse and stuck her feet in the stirrups.

Mike took the horse's reins. "Give her a little kick to get her walking."

Ginny kicked as gently as she could and the horse ambled forward. She gripped the saddle so tight that her fingers went numb, her knees squeezed as tight as she could. "I don't like this."

Mike laughed. "She's barely moving."

Ginny shook her head. "How do I make her stop."

"Whoa, Sugar." The horse stopped obediently and Mike helped her climb off. He shook his head and took off the saddle. "Okay now you climb up here first and I'll get on in front of you."

She still looked unsure but accepted his help getting on the horse. Mike climbed on in front of her and looked back. "Now you just hold onto me."

Ginny scooted closer, wrapped her arms around his waist and tucked her chin in the curve of his neck and shoulder. Mike gave the horse a gentle kick and she began to trot. "The key is stayting in control. If she thinks you're scared, she'll get scared. And the last thing you want is a scared horse cause it'll throw you to save itself."

Ginny nodded and snuggled closer. "I think this is nicer."

Mike turned and kissed her cheek. "It's got its charms."

By the time the sun went down, Ginny was more comfortable with horses (she'd even managed to feed Sugar) but she knew she didn't have a future in riding.

X

It was a particularly hot afternoon when Mike stopped his truck in his dirt driveway, he looked at her with a smile. "Wanna swim in the lake?"

"Okay," Ginny replied as she climbed out. She left her boots on the porch and Mike did the same. There was something about watching her walk through his house, letting her hair down and leaving her apron on the kitchen table like she lived there, that made him smile so hard it hurt. He followed her out to the backyard and raced him to the lake, her yellow floral dress flapping around her legs as she ran. When they reached the water, she stripped her dress off and dove into the pleasantly warm water with a shriek. Mike stripped down and followed, laughing when she splashed him. He dove under the water and picked her up by her legs, laughing at the way she shrieked when he dropped her. She jumped on his back and pushed him under the water and Mike pulled her along with him.

Ginny tried to swim away but he wrapped his arms around her, held her close until they stopped laughing, their smiles replaced with intent gazes as their chests heaved together. Ginny slicked her wet hair back from her face then wrapped her arms around his neck. "I've missed you. I don't know if I told you that."

Mike smiled. "I've missed you too."

The kiss was searing, and suddenly Ginny was 16 again, slipping out the window and climbing down the very tree Mike had pushed her out of so they could neck in the barn. She'd never forget the time Bill caught them. It was autumn and the draft from her open window woke him. One look out of it and he spotted them, pressed against the barn door. She'd been grounded for a month, half of which she spent sneaking out the window with a book keeping the window cracked just enough to let her sneak back in. She got caught again and Bill realized forbidding their relationship was no use. Thus bagan their summer of necking on the couch any time they got a moment's privacy. Ginny had lost half her summer's allowance paying Will off to keep her father occupied.

Mike bit her bottom lip, licked away the sting. "We should get out of this water."

Ginny nodded, knowing immediately what he meant. They gathered their clothes and Mike held her hand, led her to his bedroom. He wrapped Ginny in a towel and dried her off, his brain hazing when she did the same for him. Ginny shyly sat on his bed and Mike joined her, smiling when she moved to lay in the curve of his body. He brushed her hair back from her face. "You are still as beautiful as the first day I saw you."

Ginny laughed. "I hope I've gotten prettier than a snaggle-toothed, pigeon-toed first grader."

Mike laughed too. "You were still gorgeous. That's why I pushed you down at recess."

"You used to kick my ass every day!" Ginny laughed. "I can't believe I liked you."

"I can't believe I liked you either, especially after my daddy tanned my ass for pushing you out of that tree."

"I still can't believe you did that."

Mike laughed. "It was an accident! If you weren't trying to kiss me, I wouldn't have freaked out and pushed you."

"And to think just a few years later, I couldn't pry your lips off me with a crowbar."

"I swear we spent that whole last summer together kissing. Surprised we didn't catch fire from the friction."

Ginny laughed. "I haven't felt like that in years."

She found herself having a familiar feeling when his fingertips began creeping along her thighs. Mike kissed his way up her neck, licked her earlobe.

"Remember the Fourth of July? I got you to sneak away from the barbecue with me and we went to our spot in the loft?" The arousal in his voice brought goosebumps up on her skin. "And I made love to you?"

"And you made love to me," Ginny murmured with a smile. "I don't think I've really made love since that night."

Mike smiled as he nudged her legs apart with his knee and rolled on top of her. "So maybe we should try again."

Ginny expected something to have changed between them, for his kisses to feel different or his hands to be less electrifying, but if anything his kisses were more drugging and his hands were even more arousing. Ginny giggled against his neck. "Remember how bad we wanted a bed back then?"

Mike smiled, leaned down to kiss her lips. "It's lucky we didn't. Your daddy about killed me for bringing you home at dawn. If we'd had a bed, you might not have ever made it back."

"We've got a bed now."

"You might not make it back."

"Maybe I don't want to make it back tonight."

The began a gentle rocking with their movements.

X

It was nearly dark when Ginny got back. she gave Mike a shy smile as she climbed out of the truck. "Are you coming by tomorrow?"

"At lunch time like always." He smiled, leaned out of his truck to kiss her nose.

Ginny stood on the porch and watched him drive away before she went into the store. Evelyn was behind the counter, reading a dime novel. She looked up at the door's bells jingling and her eyebrows raised at the sight of her friend. Ginny knew her hair was dissheveled, drying in a knot atop her head and her dress clinging to her damp underwear. "I would ask but this is truly one time when I want to be honest when I say, 'I don't know.'"

Ginny nodded. "Trevor back?"

Evelyn nodded. "He went down to the restaurant to eat. I told him you were off visiting with the matron circle."

"Thank you." She walked around the counter, headed for the stairs but Evelyn stopped her.

"I hope whatever this is, is worth it."

Ginny smiled. "It is."

X

The next day Mike arrived right on time, a bundle of purple daisies in his hand. Ginny smiled as she took them. "I'm running out of places to put these."

She put this bunch in a vase on the counter then went back behind the counter and turned on the record player. She smiled at him as the song began. "Remember this?"

He smiled at the familiar trumpeting, the memory coming back as if it was days ago. "This was playing the first time I kissed you in the parlor."

He walked behind the counter and took her in his arms, swaying her to the music. Ginny lay her head on his chest. " _Stars shining bright above you/ Night breezes seem to whisper I love you/ Birds singing in a sycamore tree/ Dream a little dream of me_..."

" _Say nighty-night and kiss me/ Just hold me tight and tell me you'll miss me/ While I'm alone and blue as can be/ Dream a little dream of me_..."

" _Stars fading but I linger on dear/ Still craving your kiss/ I'm hoping to linger 'til dawn dear/ Just saying this_..."

" _Sweet dreams 'til sunbeams find you/ Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you..." He kissed her forehead. "But in your dreams/ Whatever they be/ Dream a little dream of me_..."

They danced until the record went silent but Mike didn't let her go, holding onto her in the middle of the store, his forehead leaning on hers. "Ginny, I know I've only been back a few weeks, and after how I left, I don't have the right to ask, but I want you—need you—to come home with me. Tell me you'll come with me."

Ginny smiled. "I've been waiting to come home with you since you came back."

X

Ginny expected a scandal but no one was terribly surprised that she vanished from the general store, not even Trevor. She got the feeling that he’d been waiting to come home and find her gone one evening. He took the ring back without comment, sent her divorce papers that she returned with an apology note.

She and Mike got married as soon as they could. It was a tiny ceremony but Will came home to give her away. He didn’t comment on the situation, just told her that she looked beautiful in her powder blue sundress. She wore her boots, and left her hair down. Mike wore his only suit and a grin that a bullet couldn’t have taken off his face.

They danced in the middle of the yard, surrounded by smiling faces but unaware of them, the sun setting behind the house and the lightning bugs buzzing to life in the field.

“We should stay like this forever,” Ginny murmured in his neck.

Mike smiled. “I’ll do you one better. After we clear everybody out, we can do this in the kitchen…naked.”

Ginny laughed. “I hope that’s not all we can do naked.”

“That’s only the beginning, darlin’.”

**Author's Note:**

> Don't forget to comment/ leave kudos XOXOXOXOXO


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